A STUDY into miniature catfish by a North Wales student has uncovered new details about the species.

The investigation of South American Corydoras catfish by PhD student Markos Alexandrou at Bangor University is reported in the prestigious Nature journal.

He found catfish communities – although containing almost identically coloured and patterned fish – could actually contain three or more different species.

This has implications for environmentalists charged with safeguarding the species.

He said: “Although appearing identical in terms of colour pattern, our in-depth assessments of genetic relationships, diet, body shape and colour patterns of the fish revealed that 92% of the communities we sampled comprised species that do not compete for resources.